Violent Crime In New Zealand

ENZ · Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2004 12:35 pm Post subject: Violent Crime In New Zealand

A few recent posts have been discussing the level of crime in NZ - with the assumption that things are much better in NZ than, for example the UK. I gathered some info to put together an article for the website which I never got round to publishing. Here it is, although it could be better written. Wink

The figures given are for the year 2000.

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The difficulty with taking many international crime statistics at face value is that they ignore one simple fact. In most countries, if a criminal commits a series of criminal actions against a victim, only the worst of the crimes is logged in the crime statistics. This means that if a criminal assaulted someone, then kidnapped them, stole their car, raped and murdered them, the crime would be counted as one murder. In New Zealand the crime would count as one assault, one kidnap, one car theft, one rape and one murder. In other words the same crime can look much worse when it’s fed into New Zealand’s crime statistics than it would in many overseas statistics.

The New Zealand Ministry of Justice has compiled figures comparing violent crime in New Zealand with other countries. To make it a truly like-for-like comparison, the Ministry used the crime-counting methods of the other countries. The figures that emerge from this approach show that New Zealand and Australia are the English speaking countries with the lowest violent crime rates.

Using American Crime counting methods (per 100,000 people)

New Zealand murder rate = 1.7
America murder rate = 5.5

New Zealand total violent crime = 133
America total violent crime = 506

Using Australian Crime counting methods (per 100,000 people)

New Zealand murder rate = 1.8
Australia murder rate = 1.8

New Zealand total violent crime = 1036
Australia total violent crime = 942

Using British Crime counting methods (per 100,000 people)

New Zealand total violent crime = 1204
British total violent crime = 1390

Using Canadian Crime counting methods (per 100,000 people)

New Zealand total violent crime = 551
Canadian total violent crime = 982

If we then take American methods as standard, we can produce a new table which truly compares violent crimes in English speaking countries.

Violent Crimes per 100,000 people:

Australia 121
New Zealand 133
England & Wales 153
Canada 237
United States 506

richsadams · Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2004 12:45 pm Post subject: It's a Crime!

Wow! Excellent work...thank you! I'm not sure I should be happy or very sad. I'm happy because I want to move to NZ Yes

...but I'm very sad because I still live in the states! Sad

Well, let's hope everyone migrating to NZ leaves their violence behind! Nice One

ENZ · Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2004 7:09 pm Post subject:

Thanks Rich Clink

- although the work was mainly the Ministry's. It pales into insignificance compared with your recent electrical posts - I reckon those deserve a special status. Nice One

I would guess that there are greater regional variations in crime in the USA than in New Zealand. Within New Zealand the 'high crime' areas are 2 or 3 or sometimes 4 times worse for crime than the 'low crime' areas.

I suppose that Washington D.C. or Detroit and other inner city areas will tend to make the figures for the whole USA look much worse than they really are and perhaps be 20 or 30 times worse than for low crime areas - or at least that's the impression I get.

MichelleW · Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2004 7:38 pm Post subject:

Thanks very much for this! this is exactly what I was looking for!

Michelle

rodders · Valued Member Joined: 25 Nov 2003 Posts: 134

figures are for y2k. uk's violent crime is probably up by 30% or more since then. somtimes feels like it's doubled. Uhoh

Charlotte · I Like It Here Joined: 02 Dec 2003 Posts: 70

Thank you, ENZ! Nice One

I'm very surprised that Australia's crime rate is lower than NZ ?!

Is this a matter of economy and infrastucture, do you think? I honestly would never have guessed.

rodders: do you mean in the UK?

rodders · Valued Member Joined: 25 Nov 2003 Posts: 134

Charlotte · I Like It Here Joined: 02 Dec 2003 Posts: 70

Couldn't agree more. It's a major part of the reasons we want to move.